News and notes about Baseball and players from this part of the World.#
Noticias y comentarios sobre Beisbol y los jugadores de esta parte del mundo

Monday, June 4

Need cash, bet against your favorite team.

What can you say about a country that gambles on everything? From sports to politics, casino and rooster fights.

But gambling in sports is pretty amazing here; you can say that betting in baseball can be a common thing, maybe basketball too, but what about hockey? Or college football? Neither of those two sports are popular here or anyone can practice them here, but they bet on them anyway, how? Well, here in the DR there’s a gambling place or “Banca de Apuestas” in almost every corner of the country.

Even in sports shows they give you hints for bets, 1900 numbers, cell phone text messages, and all kind of things to facilitate your bets.

The difference between bets in the DR or the United States is in the Internet, in the US you have websites like www.betus.com and here you have to go the nearest “Banca” and make your plays, some people go for the safe bet and put their money on one or two teams, but many waste their money on 4 and even 6 teams, sometimes they get very lucky and collect a good amount of money, but in many cases they loose their money.

It’s amazing to see people in the morning reading the sport sections to see if they collected or if they loose, check on the upcoming games to see at what time they have to be on the “Banca” to see the “lines” and place a bet, sometimes making their evening plans counting with the money they will collect.

They follow stats, but not to see how the teams is doing, but to bet against the team on a hot streak.

If you ever had the chance to go the Ballpark in the DR, you’ll see people betting on the next hit, the double, and even on the strike.